GUNNING FOR HISTORY AT HISTORY FEST

Pictures don't convey the olfactory dimension of a Civil War encampment.

The sulfuric "rotten egg" smell of gunpowder smoke, the scent of coffee and chili bubbling over a campfire grate, sweating horses, gun oil and other aromas and odors redolent of 19th century warfare were part of the experience Sunday for visitors to the sixth annual Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War encampment at the Presidio of Monterey.

The encampment was part of the Monterey History Fest, held throughout the city on its waterfront and in its historic "Island of Adobes."

Women of the SUVCW Auxiliary turned out in bonnets, sun hats and crinoline dresses, but a few soldiers in Yankee blue were also women who enjoy donning uniforms, firing guns and camping out.

Rachel Hammon, 11, of Squaw Valley, wore a Becky Thatcher-style floor-length calico dress and bonnet — "we made these" — and she is a veteran of reenactments and encampments up and down the state.

"I'm home-schooled," she said. "This is part of my history lesson."

Jen Roger of Redwood City was suited up as a signal sergeant in Union blue, playing the role of signalman Silas J. Merriwether. Her yellow piping indicated "Silas Merriwether" would have been detailed from a cavalry unit, though, since the Signal Corps didn't get its assigned orange color from the Army until the 1870s, signal detachment members pretty much chose what corps color they would wear, she said.

At the time of the Civil War, the choices were robin's egg blue (infantry), red (artillery) and gold (cavalry), according to Phil Caines of El Segundo, playing the role of an infantry sergeant and delivering a brief lecture to an audience gathered for a demonstration of musket and artillery firing on the Presidio green.

Caines also explained that not all Union soldiers wore blue or all Confederates gray. At the outbreak of the War Between the States, federal soldiers wore blue and militia troops from states on both sides wore gray. All the Northern troops switched to Union blue within a year, and the Southerners, after wearing out their gray uniforms, donned captured Union jackets for warmth or wore tan-colored homespun cotton.

He assured them the gun discharges would be subdued — blanks aren't as loud in black powder shooting as they are when there's a bullet or cannonball in the gun — but it's not a good idea to stand close in front of the muzzle of a gun firing them, either.

Shannon Hayes of Monterey is a reenactor with the African-American "Buffalo Soldier" 9th Regiment of Cavalry, and wore his gold piping in the role of a cavalryman temporarily attached to a horse artillery unit as a driver and teamster.

Members of the California Historical Artillery Society, led by Dennis Wimfrey of Salinas, which operates a ranch in Salinas to house its 25 Standardbred horses used to pull cannons and caissons, provided a 3-inch rifled artillery piece for the demonstration.

Artillery Society member Brian Bradford of San Benancio said the group was founded in the early 1990s and incorporated in 1996.

"We're also a horse rescue organization," he said. "All of our horses are from Standardbred racing tracks who didn't make the cut." Standardbreds are big, black trotting horses who pull sulkies, or two-wheeled racing carts, and since they are used to being harnessed and pulling, they are ideal for artillery work.

A section of artillery requires 14 horses: six to pull the limber and gun, six to pull the limber and caisson, or ammunition cart, and two "spare tires" ridden by gun crew members in case one of the original team of horses is killed or wounded.

Cavalryman Paul Laurischeff of San Jose delivered a running lecture on Civil War small arms: a variety of cap-and-ball revolvers, the standard Springfield Model 1861 muzzle-loading rifle, the lever-action Spencer rifle, breech-loading Sharps rifle and revolving Colt carbine, among others.

The seven-shot Spencer, he noted, was first made by inventor Christopher Spencer in 1860, who demonstrated it to President Abraham Lincoln on the White House Lawn the next year, and Lincoln immediately directed the Army to acquire it.

A member of the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues and the National Civil War Association, she said she also owns "a Yankee jacket" to wear at reenactments when they run short of Union troops.

An aid station, field mess hall, headquarters tent and other units that would make up a camp under canvas were spread over the ground in front of the Presidio Museum and below Fort Mervine and the Sloat Monument with equipment and weapons on display.

Sonja Homa of Seaside brought son David, 2½, and daughter Lexie, 10 months, to the demonstration.